Rolling up the runs

BY NEAL MCCLELLAND
The Daily Iberian
Published/Last Modified on Friday, June 13, 2008 2:12 PM CDT

ABBEVILLE -- Sometime this season, the New Iberia Holiday Sporting Goods Cajuns offense will go through a slump and not score a bunch of runs.

Until that time however, Cajuns coach Shane Faucheaux is more than content to let his team roll up the hits and runs.

“We’re just going to ride this wave as long as we can,” said Faucheaux after the Cajuns demolished Abbeville 21-5 Thursday night.

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It was the third straight District 3-Central game that New Iberia has won by the 10-run mercy rule after five innings.

“We came to the ball park again and swung the bats really well,” said Faucheaux. “Stefan (Lopez) pitched and gave us the opportunity to win.

“It was a good showing.”

After scoring 19 runs in the first district game against Franklin and adding 10 more in the second game against the Legionnaires on Tuesday, the Cajuns (6-3-1, 3-0) had their highest scoring output of the season with 21 runs in five innings against the Post 29ers (0-1 season and district), including a 10-run fifth inning where the Cajuns sent 14 batters to the plate.

“We’re taking an approach at the plate where we’re looking for something early in the count that’s straight that we can drive,” said Faucheaux. “We’re laying off the breaking ball. We’ve been getting hitters’ counts and we’re not missing it right now.”

The Cajuns scored 21 runs on only 11 hits, also taking advantage of eight walks, five hit batters and five errors.

“Hopefully we can keep on a roll,” said Faucheaux.

New Iberia decided to play a little impromptu game of home run derby in the rout as Brandon Anderson knocked a pair of 3-run homers and just missed a third as one shot hit halfway up the wall in dead center field, and Lopez hit his seventh home run of the season, a two-run shot, in the Cajuns’ 10th game of the year.

“Lopez is not only pitching well, but he’s swinging the bat well,” said Faucheaux. “And Brandon Anderson is doing the same thing. He pitched well the other night (against Franklin) and comes out to the ballpark and hits two home runs and another off the center field wall.

“Those two guys have been impact players for us this summer.”

Anderson’s offensive output is surprising considering he was pitching this spring and not getting any batting practice at LSUE.

“Most of it was just luck,” said Anderson, who went 3-for-4 with eight RBIs in the win. “The pitcher left the ball over the middle of the plate and I was able to capitalize on his mistakes.

“It took a little while to get my stroke back, I spent some time in the batting cage.”

Lopez also had a monster night at the plate, going 4-for-5 with five RBIs. He had a pair of RBI-singles and an RBI-double in addition to the two-run blast in the fourth.

“I’m just trying to keep it up, keep that streak going,” said Lopez. “As long as we do the little things right, getting bunts down, moving runners on the bags, we have a good enough team to keep scoring runs.”

Lopez picked up the win for the Cajuns, going all five innings and allowing five runs on five hits with 10 strikeouts. The only mistake he made on the night was giving up a grand slam home run to Abbeville’s Trey Broussard in the fourth.

“I was having trouble getting my curveball over,” said Lopez. “You can’t throw fastballs all day because they’ll just wait for it. For the most part it was my fault because I know I shouldn’t walk people with two outs but even with the mistake, we came away with the win.”

Also for the Cajuns, Pat Neustrom had a hit and scored three runs, Matt Geoffroy had a double and scored four runs and Jacob Lopez singled and scored three runs in the win.

The Cajuns take a break from district play this weekend as the team travels to Crowley for a tournament. New Iberia played Sam Houston Friday morning and will play Bell’s at 9 a.m. Saturday morning and Opelousas at 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

All games are at Miller Park.

Semifinals for the tournament are set for Sunday at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. with the finals set for 3:30 p.m.

Comments

    Gara Anderson wrote on Jun 14, 2008 9:30 AM:

    " Anderson’s offensive output is surprising considering he was pitching this spring and not getting any batting practice at LSUE.

    “Most of it was just luck,” said Anderson, who went 3-for-4 with eight RBIs in the win. “The pitcher left the ball over the middle of the plate and I was able to capitalize on his mistakes.

    “It took a little while to get my stroke back, I spent some time in the batting cage.”

    Luck...but an athlete in training is a bit more... "

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